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Ahh viral marketing Sony doesn't know how you work, but will it work for the American branch of Haruhi's SOS club?

After a lot of ambiguity it seems that the Huruhi website that was being circulated around the blogosphere is official and not a german esper plot.

The North American release is a joint effort between Kadokawa Pictures USA and Bandai Entertainment.
The website goes to a lot of effort to recreate the clubs website from the anime . There's also a myspace account link where Kyon asks to meet normal people (on myspace?), as well as a cute live action movie. Before you all start scowling, it's supposed to be one of Huruhi's movies not a dub preview.

Since the American Earthsea live action mini series aired here we've feared that a UK release of the Ghibli Tales of Earthsea might be some time off much like America where Disney need to wait until 2009 until they can release the film. Thankfuly, it seems that Optimum aren't caught up in the problem and are releasing the film sub only in the UK.

The nice folks at Geneon Entertainment have sent us news that they've launched a website for Hellsing Ultimate, the OAV incarnation of the fan favourite anime series. The website contains some details about the series, it's creator, DVD release dates, along with a host of downloads like desktop wallpaper and chat icons.

FUNimation's UK titles will be switching from MVM to Revelation Pictures. The move has been made by Nevarre , FUNimation's parent company who already use Revelation for other releases.This will involve series such as Full Metal Alchemist and Fruits Basket. MVM will still continue with a range of anime it's licenced independently from FUNi.

In a long overdue announcement it finally seems FUNimation are giving Dragon Ball Z fans what they want.
After halting their re-release of the first season uncuts, and then postponing the new Saiyan saga box set, details have finally been released.
FUNimation have remastered the series themselves rather than using the Japanese " Dragon-box" footage and controversially they are wide screen , but at $49.98 a season it's much cheaper than importing the Japanese DVDs and there are some interesting extras . The first box comes out in February.

The friendly guys over at ADV Films UK have sent us details of their latest acquistion from Production IG, Le Chevalier D'Eon. Currently they haven't set a release date which is a bit of a pain, not even a rough time frame is mentioned, however it does say that they have UK Video, TV and Video on Demand rights.

Slam Dunk author Takehiko Inoue is to issue an instructional DVD entitled DRAW. Don't hold your breath for an English release though, despite being wildly popular in Japan both the anime and manga versions of Slam Dunk have both suffered major set backs in their US releases with both being on indefinite hold

Those busy folks at ADV Films UK sent us this some details of their lastest cross promotion, which is covered in Wii (Nintendo Wii that is).

In the first wave of titles for the Wii is Red Steel, a game with swords and guns is being approartely crosspromtoed with Samurai Gun, an anime title with swords and guns. Which makes a good tie in if you ask us!

In a nutshell the first run of Samurai Gun Volume 1 will contain an extra free bonus disc with a sneak peak of the Red Steel game.

While the first run of the Red Steel game will receive a Samurai Gun episode and some extra ADV materials on a bonus disc.

Paradise Kiss, the Manga by famous Manga-ka Ai Yazawa (known for massive hit NANA) will be officially out on DVD in the U.S. On Geneon's new website ParadiseKissDVD.com there is also details about Franz Ferdinand ending theme 'Do you want to' used in the anime series. The Ending theme has also been licensed to be used in the U.S.

The first of Volume of Paradise Kiss will be out on December 19, 2006.

The nice folks from ADV Films UK have sent us the details of their lastest DVD release. Unlike the usual monthly release, they'll be releasing a DVD with selected episodes to sample. They're marketing it as a taster DVD, or to give it a more Japanese theme a Bento Box. The disc will have 4 episodes on a single DVD, retailing at a very reasonable £5.99, considering a normal anime DVD with 4 episodes on would retail for more than twice the price. It's due for release on 16th October 2006.

This should prove a great way of sampling episodes, after all, splashing out £6 to find out if you like a selection of different series is a lot better than paying for a whole disc with the same series on and finding it's not your thing.

Those nice folk from ADV UK have sent us the details for their winter release schedule. It seems that they've targeted the anime fan's Christmas list with the majority of titles being released on 20th November 2006.

ADV UK will be releasing a superb looking Evangelion Platinum boxset in a nice shiney box with tons of extras which are exclusive to the European release! The 7 disc release includes all the episodes with remastered video and audio, along with 4 directors cuts episodes, 4 documentaries a nice 60 page booklet and many more bits. The box set is retailing for £99.99, but the more price senstive otaku can get it from Play.com for £72.99 or Sendit.com for £69.89, other retailers might have similar deals too. This is a limited edition set, so if you want it, you better put it at the top of your Christmas list. This was also the highlight of ADV UK's Industry panel at AmeCon this year.

Like FLCL, the wacky six-part OAV series from Gainax about a young boy, an alien girl, and the robots that come from his head? Well, get ready to enjoy it all over again when Synch Point releases FLCL: The Ultimate Edition box set on November 21. This new set, going for a SRP of $69.95, will not only include the full series with a director's commentary, but lots of cool free swag. This includes a sticker sheet, postcards, a book (what kind is currently not known, though an art book of some type is likely), and best of all, a coupon for a free T-shirt. Definitely for many to add to their Christmas wish lists.

September isn't here yet, and already those nice people from ADV have sent us their October DVD line-up.

They'll be releasing:

- The Place Promised In Our Early Days
- Cromartie High School volume 4
- Get Backers volume 9

The Place Promised in Our Early Days, is a full length feature from up and coming director Makoto Shinkai, Voices of a Distant Star, which caused a stir for being an anime title directed and produced completely on his Mac. We recommend it to see how Mr Shinkai is progressing and some fans may have already seen this feature at the NFT earlier this month. We've been enjoying Cromartie High School as well. Get Backers is always worth watching too.

The Dragon Quest anime series is all together spread out, lengthy and a very interesting series that has yet to be licensed in America. You would think that a series which involved Akira Toriyama, creator of the insanely popular anime series Dragonball Z, would have his anime adaptation of the already popular ENIX RPG video game (also known as Dragon Warrior in the USA), be released in the USA. But that is beside the point right now. In the planning stages of about five years now, a brand new R2 DVD-Box will soon go on sale in Japan.

Action adventure series Beet the Vandel Buster has been licenced by Illumitoon Entertainment, a new company formed by ex-FUNimation employees.
Beet is based on a manga of the same name by creative team Riku Sanjo and Kôji Inada who are well known for their work on the Dragon Quest manga Dai no Daiboken.

We reported some time ago that UK company CPLG was listing Inu Yasha as a property that it was representing. AUN are new reporting that Play have listed a Season one UK box set of the anime at only £28, with a September release date.

Considering the length of this series and the time fans have had to wait, the news that Inu Yasha is being released at such a reasonable price is great news. There's no news yet as to which company will be handling it's UK release.

Normally we'd recomend a single title, but ADV have got something for everyone this month. If you like ultra violence (that is sugary cute and gratuitous), go for Elfen Lied. If Comedy is more your thing, go for Cromartie High School.

Bad news for American anime fans. Anime News Network has reported that Anime Forest.com, the popular on-line rental site, will be shutting down after three years of service. An e-mail was sent out to customers of the site informing them of the closing, though reasons as to why were not given. Per-rental services ceased on April 7th, while subscription services will end on April 30. Anime Forest thanks their customers for their support in the e-mail. They will be missed.

As many anime fans may have heard, the BBFC have made a cut from the UK DVD edition of Paranoia Agent Volume 3, the scene in question involves a girl attempting to hang herself, which goes against the BBFC policy, as a result compulsory cut of 1 minute and 20 seconds was made. An interview with Sue Clark from the BBFC can be found on aNIme, which goes into more details about the cut.

Otaku rejoice! The popular RPG game series Final Fantasy has stolen many hours of our lives, especially Final Fantasy VII, which is why a CGI movie was made. It's set two years after the events of the game, and features everyone favourite Cloud and Sephiroth. It's due for UK release on DVD and UMD on April 24th and April 25th in the USA, it looks like it's going to be good.

According the Mainichi Daily News, Italian police have raided firms in the first European case of pirated anime DVDs. As the author of the Pirate Anime FAQ, I've been aware of pirated anime DVDs ever since the format was released, however, it seems that the Italian authorities have started to clamp down on them, seizing around 400 titles, which included Naruto, New Getter Robo, Hinotori and Mazinger. The company raided originally sold leg anime, but started to sell Hong Kong bootlegs in 2002. Around 20,000 to 30,000 copies were sold each month for 25 euros each. The article states that the company and other companies being investigated are accountable for 90% of all pirated copies on the Italian market, as well as 60% of the legitimate market! It also shows that these companies make huge profits, (900,000 euros a year apparently), and that the companies in question are also being investigated for tax evasion.

This article is interesting since I've always had trouble getting solid figures for pirate anime merchandise, as a result it's been hard to gauge how much it's been hurting the anime industry. These figures present an insight to how much anime fans are being ripped off by pirate DVD companies and the retailers that sell them. Apparently this is the first time authorities have exposed a case of pirated Japanese anime Europe, I have a list of many other retailers and will be happy to pass them on the authorities if requested.

Maybe this is the first of many such raids, a sign of things to come to those other bad anime retailers out there, but I also hope that the authorities do not mistake legitimate import DVDs from other countries (often called grey imports) as pirate DVDs.

Next week is a date to for UK Anime fans to mark in their calendars, it's when My Neighbour Totoro gets it's UK DVD release. It's the first time the film has been released in the UK, it's had the odd cinema screening, but until now it has not been available to buy officially. We've already reviewed the UK edition for you, and suggest you get it when it hits the shelves on the 27th of March.

While our US readers where treated to the DVD release of Howl's Moving Castle last week, our UK and Australian readers might want to take a look at our review of Howl's Moving Castle. Optimum and Madman really have put a nice lot of extras on this release, and it's good to see that along with a sub and a dub version they've also supplied subtitles for the English Language track.

The gap between the Japanese and US/UK release of this title was less than 5 months instead of 2 years compared to the UK DVD release of Spirited Away, it really shows you how much more mainstream anime has now become! It's also impressive to note that the US/UK/AU DVD releases are in the same two weeks, a first for a Ghibli English language DVD release! UK fans might want to hunt around for cut price bargains online and also consider that Amazon UK have an exclusive cover.

March marks an important month for UK Ghibli fans. Howl's Moving Castle, Hayao Miyazaki's latest film gets a very swift UK DVD release, we're really impressed at how quickly it took for Optimum to bring this title to market, especially since it was only released on DVD in Japan in November 2005, previously there has been a great gap between Ghibli DVD releases outside of Japan. Optimum will be releasing a two disc set packed with extras.

Many more anime fans will be excited to hear that My Neighbour Totoro finally gets an official UK DVD release, after many years of waiting. The film was a great success in Japan and as a result became Studio Ghibli's mascot and was incorporated into their logo. It's an excellent film and one of my all time favourite anime titles. It's a charming feature of children and adult alike, one of those real rare gems of a movie and a must have for any anime fan.

The brilliant Crayon Shin-chan, has been licensed by FUNimation. The show has previously been aired on Jetix in an edited form, though still remained funny. This is great news for Shin-chan fans as hopefully previously unseen material such as the surreal Shin-chan move, will finally be available.

The final volume of the Special Platinum Edition of Evangelion is tempting. Elfen Lied, is shocking to say the least, if not the most graciously violent show we've seen in a very long time, it makes other shows look very tame by comparison, not something to show your grandma, especially if she was expecting something like Hello Kitty. The fact that the BBFC passed Elfen Lied uncut with a 15 Certificate shows that times have indeed changed and we're certinally curious to see if late volumes will also get a rated 15, or if they'll get rated 18 instead.

We hear that the live action Boogiepop features supposed to be good, but we haven't seen it yet, so can't confirm it.

Following up on a recent announcement of FUNimation Entertainment, Ltd's acquirement of Negima, the anime series based on Ken Akamatsu's latest manga about a boy wizard teaching English at a girl’s school in Japan, Anime Insider announced in their 2006 Preview issue some more of the cast for the English dub. The series is due out later this year, though there is no official date for the release.

Greg Ayres is still up to voice main character Negi Springfield, while Luci Christian (Full Metal Panic, Azumanga Daioh) will play his hot tempered student Asuna. Other actresses for the mostly female cast include Laura Bailey (Fruits Basket), Monica Rial (Excel Saga, Burst Angel) and Caitlin Glass (Fullmetal Alchemist). With the 30+ students in Negi's class (including fortune teller Konoka, shy bookworm Nodoka, haughty rich girl Ayaka, half-demon kendoist Setsuna, vampire girl Evangeline, ninja girl Kaede and many more) and Akamatsu’s plans to develop them all with their own storylines, Negima could very contain one the largest voice casts for an anime series, Japanese or English.

The nice folks over at Turner Classic Movies have sent us the following details about their Miyazaki movie season and their Sweepstake. Details as follows -

For the month of January, Turner Classic Movies will be airing Hayao Miyazaki anime films every Thursday beginning at 8pm EST. In conjunction with these airings, TCM is offering fans an opportunity to enter The Ultimate Hayao Miyazaki DVD & Book Sweepstakes! One lucky winner will receive a gift collection featuring works by legendary Japanese Animator Hayao Miyazaki. 50 first prize winners will receive a book and a DVD from the Miyazaki collection. To enter the sweepstakes please have you Miyazaki fans click the following web address: www.turnerclassicmovies.com/sweepstake/index.jsp

Paul over at Anime UK News.net has sent us the low down on a very interesting article they've just put on-line. Getting the views from the major players in the UK anime industry, the article recaps 2005 and gets various companies views on 2006. It's interesting to see all their separate takes on the achievements of the last 12 months.

The Otaku News Crew consider 2005 a very important year for the UK anime industry since it's the year that anime really went in the public eye, with more stores willing to stock it, more news papers writing positive and factually correct articles. Even Howl's Moving Castle got good fair write coverage too, while manga continues to be more easy to obtain in the UK. Taking into account where the UK anime scene was 3 or 4 years ago things have really progressed.

Troubled UK CD / Video Shop MVC have gone into administration, meaning that many stores will be closing down. This is a bad day for UK anime fans as they had a very good stock of anime titles compared to other highstreet retailers and as a result MVC gift vouchers were always a welcome addition to any otaku's Christmas stocking, espically from relatives who thought that anime was only pokemon. At least MVC will be having a closing sale, with huge discounts on their existing stock. We advise our readers to get down to their local MVC while stocks last to get some anime titles and spend their gift vouchers while they still can!

UK on-line retailer's Play.com and Amazon.co.uk have started to take pre-orders for Howl's Moving Castle, they both listing the release date as 13th March 2006. Otaku News had heard rumours about Optimum wanting to release Howl earlier, however in order to qualify for an Academy Award, they had to delay the release. What's interesting to note that the boxshots from Amazon and Play are different, which leads us to believe that both sites have produced mock-ups as they are missing vital details on the packaging such as the BBFC rating logo.

A quick check on Amazon.com reveals that they're taking pre-orders for twodifferent versions of Howl's Moving Castle, which are priced the same, we suspect that Amazon will remove one edition nearer the launch date.

If Optimum and Buena Vista can release Howl's Moving Castle in March, they should be highly commended, since the Japanese DVD has just been released this November and Ghibli titles have been traditonally very slow to get US and UK DVD releases.

The good people from ADV Films UK have sent out the details for their January DVD releases. They really do want to start the new year with a bang quite literally by releasing the latest incarnation of Full Metal Panic!, entitled Full Metal Panic? FUMOFFU, this 12 episode spin off series focuses more on Sousuke's and Kaname's adventures at high school and is based around the FMP "light novels".